BLAINE, Minn (AP) — Jacob Bridgeman birdied five of his last seven holes for an 8-under 63 and a one-stroke lead over Mackenzie Hughes on Thursday after the first round of the 3M Open.
Patrick Rodgers, Martin Trainer and Andrew Novak were two shots back at the TPC Twin Cities.
Billy Horschel, coming off a second-place tie Sunday in the British Open after holding the 54-hole lead, withdrew about an hour before his tee time due to illness.
Bridgeman had his lowest score in 23 career events on the PGA Tour. He holed out from a bunker for birdie on the par-3 17th and two-putted the par-5 18th for another birdie. The 24-year-old former Clemson player missed the cut in his last three events.
“Never had struggles with my confidence until these last few weeks,” Bridgeman said. “I I told a couple people I felt like I’ve been kicked in the face.”
Bridgeman went fishing Sunday, took Monday off, hit a few balls late Tuesday and played in a Wednesday pro-am. He also spoke with his girlfriend, parents and college coach, the latter of whom reminded him that one of his biggest strengths as his mental game.
“He was kind of talking me through some of the stuff we did in college, how we build each other up,” Bridgeman said. “He would always walk with me and he would help me.”
Hughes had a bogey-free round. The Canadian won the second of his two PGA Tour titles last year in the Sanderson Farms Championship.
“I knew in the first kind of three or four holes that I had something nice going with the putter,” Hughes said. “At that point it was just a matter of making sure I gave myself as many looks as possible and got the ball on the green and let the putter do the work. You don’t get those days super often when the hole starts looking pretty big.”
Novak — at No 84, above the 70-player cut line for the playoffs in the FedExCup standings — was 6 under on the back nine.
“Bottom line, I have two events left until the playoffs,” Novak said. “So despite me playing well, that doesn’t really matter, I need to go play better.”
Sahith Theegala was at 66 with Gary Woodland, Kevin Streelman, Taylor Pendrith, Stewart Cink, Michael Thorbjornsen, Kurt Kitayama and Hayden Springer. Tony Finau, the 2022 champion, shot 67.
Nick Dunlap shot 71, a week after winning the Barracuda Championship to become the first player to win a tour event as an amateur and a professional in the same season.
Defending champion Lee Hodges, looking to secure a spot in the playoffs, had a 73, He entered the tournament 71st and hasn’t had a top-10 finish since winning last year.
Thriston Lawrence, fourth at the British Open, shot 75.
